things going down hill...

[BroadfordQueen]

i decided to enter my youngster in a local dressage competition- he has done dressage alot of times before, but just in events. he can carry his head lovely and makes such extravagent strides when he feels like it, and could be a top dressage pony. however, rode him on wednesday and it felt horrible- his left rein was so stiff and he was throwing his head round everywhere, getting really wound up.

took him on a hack yesterday and he was absalutly lovely, felt really nice, and i got alot of looks by passers by and even a "what a gorgeous pony" comment by a dog walker.

rode him this morning and again he was horrible. his left rein is awful, he motorbikes around the corner, even if i do 10 meter circles in each corner, he still ignores me; even with my mum riding him he was horrible!

feeling doubious of this dressage comp tomorrow- its only unnaff and a bit of fun, but im getting really upset about how he has suddenly started to deteriate. we have all winter to work on it on to soften his left rein, but do you have any ideas of any exercises that may help? or indeed anything i can do tomorrow whilst working him in for the dressage?

any help will be appriciated, sorry for the self indulgent rant.

(btw, pic in sig shows how he usually goes. but recently he has been 10 times worse...!)

 

[Haflinger]

Will PM you! xx

 

[Cinders]

sorry to hear things aren't going well at the moment and feel free to ignore me but i d suggest you dont do anymore schooling not before the comp anyway, go for a nice hack and to chill you both out. I ve been doing a lot of schooling with my pony and for a few weeks everything felt like it was going wrong, i felt like we were rubbish and the more i got annoyed and stressed the worse she got. We had a week of taking time out and hacking, doing fun things and then can back refreshed and she's better than ever at the moment.

It really sounds like you and your pony are just going through a bad patch, try and relax especially in your dressage tomorrow as if he's anything like my pony he'll be worse if your all tense.

For tomorrow i d just suggest warming him up slowly and trying to keep things calm, he's clearly capable as you said he can do it when he wants, you never know he might go really well tomorrow when he's in a different environment!

good luck xx

 

[RunToEarth]

My lad got groggy in his left side, it was more noticable on the flat but I could feel him swinging left jumping. I got his neck&back checked and it was a minor prob that has been cleared now. May be worth getting it checked. x